


The Storm Inside

by DerivativeLiteracy



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Death, F/F, Gunshot, Sad, Sad Ending, alternative ending, chloe price - Freeform, gun - Freeform, life is strange - Freeform, max caulfield - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-18 01:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18975835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DerivativeLiteracy/pseuds/DerivativeLiteracy
Summary: Max has had enough of the turmoil she has brought because of Chaos Theory. Will she be able to bring everything back to its proper order?





	The Storm Inside

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first actual fanfic that I decided to work on wholeheartedly (like not out of fun) so I decided to make it my first work on here as well. Comments/reviews/suggestions are greatly appreciated! Hope you enjoy my work. :)
> 
> P.S. I also added BGM for extra effect haha (it shows up somewhere in the fic)
> 
> Enjoy!

The wind rages, ice-cold raindrops, from the dim sky, as big as marbles splash onto the murky soil, thunder claps right through eardrums, and two girls stand amidst the storm beside an old lighthouse.

 

"Max," Chloe says with a shakey voice, "you have to do it."

"No! No way! I can't! I've seen it way too many times already, I can't lose you anymore, Chloe!"

"It's....the only....way."

Max covers her face in frustration, and walks a short distance away from Chloe, her back turned against her.

Lightning flashes as another roll of thunder fills the atmosphere.

"There has to be another way," Max turns back to Chloe. "I... I can just rewind! I can just rewind and all of this will be ov—"

"CHAOS THEORY, MAX," Chloe yells, rushing towards Max, grabbing her on both shoulders, "if you rewind any further, this will get hella worse! You have to let it happen. We have to save everyone."

Max stands there distraught, looking at Chloe in the eyes, rain water running across her face.

 

Water drips from Chloe's blue hair as Max sees the storm getting closer to Arcadia Bay. She closes her eyes, and attempts to rewind one more time.

 

"Agh!"  
"Max!"  
"I-I'm fine..." Max says softly, clutching her temples.  
"What do you mean you're fine?! You're bleeding!"

 

She's already hit her limit from rewinding repeatedly, jumping from one timeline to another. Not to mention her stress from navigating through Limbo.

 

"Max... We don't have much time! That storm is hella close. You HAVE to do something!"

Max wipes the blood off her nose, and notices a deer in her peripheral vision.

The spectral deer stands by a pine tree violently thrashing in the harsh winds. She and the deer share eye contact as if they were the only things in the world. Thunder claps again, and the deer runs off in the direction of the storm, gracefully leaping off the cliff.

"Max! Snap out of it!" Chloe yells, "You've been staring at nothing for five seconds like nothing is happening!"

Max quickly turns to Chloe and inhales suddenly like she just woke up from a bad dream.

Lightning strikes the pine tree sending off a large chunk towards the lighthouse. The two girls scream and scamper away from the falling wood and debris, looking at the fallen piece of tree that had fallen just a few feet away from them.

Chloe turns to her still shaken best friend staring at the giant piece of wood, "Max there's no time to think! You have to do something or you'll get even yourself killed!"

To Max, what Chloe said was muffled, but she understood.

From the day at the restroom, to Chloe becoming condemned to a wheelchair, and watching her best friend get shot multiple times, everything from each timeline played so rapidly in her head like it were a movie in cutscenes.

Seeing the blue butterfly once again against a light she had never seen before, she closes her eyes as tears run down her cheek. Max takes in a deep breath, and lets out a heavy sigh. She turns to her best friend with a heavyhearted expression on her face, her eyebrows almost meeting.

"I'm ready, Chloe." Max says with a reluctant voice. She grabs Chloe's hands.

"You know what, Max? I'm hella happy—" Chloe says slowly, her voice shaking as she breaks into tears, "that I got to see my best friend again after so long. Even if it was just for a week... It felt like we were together for years. It really made up for the lost time, y'know?"

Max smiled and cried even harder. She held Chloe's hands tighter and looked down at the wet grass mixed with mud.

"I'm so sorry, Chloe..." Max said softly, her voice cracking. "You've had my back for the longest time, and I always stood there doing nothing."

"Hey, come on man. That's not true! You're Super Max! Remember all the cool shit we did with your powers? And all the times YOU saved my ass. That's hella cool!"

Max lost herself entirely to her emotions and sunk her face on Chloe's shoulder. The cold leather jacket soaked from the storm, meeting her face full of tears.

"Come on, man. You're gonna make me cry, too!" Chloe said jokingly before she hugged her best friend and grieved immediately after.

 

A strong wind shoved them, interrupting the two girls locked in an embrace. Max looked at Chloe before shuffling to get the polaroid of the butterfly in the restroom from her trusty side bag.

 

"This is it, Super Max. Do your thing," Chloe said eagerly and chuckled to appear calm.

Max held the polaroid from that fateful day with her two hands, looking at Chloe smiling at her for one last time.

 

Max suddenly leaned in to kiss her.

 

Chloe was caught off guard, but still managed to return the kiss. "W-Woah..." she mumbled astonished.

"I love you, Chloe." Max said sincerely.

"I love you too, Max," replied Chloe, "Ready when you are." she said, wasting no time.

"I'm sorry, Chloe. Don't ever forget me. And always remember," her voice cracked, "that you'll always be in my heart. Forever."

Max held the picture again with both hands and began focusing on the polaroid getting soaked with tears running from her eyes, and drops of water from her brown hair.

 

* * *

 

 

She woke up to the moment she snapped a picture of the butterfly on the janitor's mop bucket, and let out a sigh because she knew there was no turning back. She tore the polaroid apart, and sat there behind the cubicle waiting for the inevitable to happen in the restroom.

 

Someone finally barged through the door. Max shot up surprised and stood just by the edge of the cubicle wall to hear clearer.

 

"It's cool, Nathan... Don't stress. You're okay, bro. Just count to three. Don't be scared. _You_ , own this school... If I wanted, I could blow it up! You're the boss—" an anxious male voice filled the room, interrupted by another person entering.

"So, _what do you want_ ," he asked arrogantly.

"I hope you checked the perimeter, as my step-ass would say." a familiar female voice replied, barging into each of the cubicles and (un)fortunately missing the last one where Max stood behind.

"Now, let's talk bidness." the voice continued.  
"I got nothing for you."  
"Wrong. **You got hella cash!** "  
"That's my family, not me."  
"Oh, boohoo, poor little rich kid. I know you been pumpin' drugs 'n' shit to kids around here. I bet your respectable family would help me out if I went to them. Man, I can see the headlines now—"  
"Leave them out of this, bitch!"

 

Max slid down the cubicle wall to sit on the floor and held her head in distress, expecting imminent fate.

 

"I can tell everybody Nathan Prescott is a punk ass who begs like a little girl and talks to himself—" the voice taunted before getting interrupted.

A gun's hammer was pulled back audibly.

" _ **You don't know WHO THE FUCK I AM, or WHO YOU'RE MESSING AROUND WITH!**_ " Nathan threatened.

"W-Where'd you get that? What are you doing? Come on, p-put that thing down!" the voice cowered from a domineering tone.

 

He positioned the gun point blank at her.

 

"Don't... **EVER** tell me what to do. **I'm so SICK** of people trying to control me!" he screamed.

"You are going to get in hella more trouble for this than drugs—"

"N-Nobody would EVER even miss your 'punk-ass', would they?"

The tension was creeping into Max's nerves as she sat there restless. She swore that this was going to be the last time she would witness the death of her most valuable companion. After all that she had been through, she had to accept, in the hardest way possible, that she couldn't save everybody. But this time, she would finally make things right; make the right decision.

"Get that gun away from me, psycho—!"

 

**BANG.**

 

[[queue Lua - Bright Eyes]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSBs-hiapo4)

 

* * *

* * *

"NO!" Max exclaimed.

 

Nathan dropped his gun in shock. Alternating between scampering in circles aimlessly, and looking at the lifeless body he just gunned down.

 

"Max...? _Max!_ "

 

She replied with all the energy she had left, "C-Chloe..."

Chloe rushed over to her dying childhood friend. "Oh my God... I'm gonna get help! You'll be okay!" she said panicking, then turned to Nathan, " _You FUCKING ASSHOLE!_ "

Max held Chloe's face and smiled. "So much for a reunion, huh," then chuckled.

"This isn't the best time to lighten the mood, Max...!"

"Don't worry. I did more than just that," Max said softly, her voice cracking. Blood trickled from her mouth, making her cough.

"Y-Your stepdad..." Max continued, "he cares about you. A lot. You just don't know it yet."

 

Chloe frowned slightly.

 

"I know you loved your dad, I also loved William, but give David a chance to show you he loves you just as much. Even if he's someone else."

Chloe's expression switched from annoyed to awestruck as if she had a change of heart. She never heard or thought about any of the things Max told her; almost as if Max knew exactly what would happen in Chloe's life.

Max kept going on, "And you, Chloe Price... I never forgot about you. Ever. And I missed your 'punk ass', too."

The blue-haired girl chuckled, caught off-guard, tears suddenly fell from her now tame eyes.

"Okay, that's enough joking Max. Your blood is all over the place. We need to get you to the hospital." Chloe cut Max short.

But Max placed her hand on Chloe's shoulder to stop her.

 

"Trust me on this," she heaved.

 

Chloe was clueless. But she didn't know that this was the only way she could be happy again after all that she went through, without Max.

With one last breath, Max looked up at the ceiling, seeing the blue butterfly flying across, passing against the restroom light and out the window as she lay there in her blood, holding the hand of Chloe Price.


End file.
